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Telegraph - We can’t defeat terrorism without unity. By Con Coughlin

But the irreverent tone of the exchanges has changed dramatically since the Bush administration’s mounting frustration with what it regards as the British military’s failure in Basra has erupted into the open. …

The fact that so senior a figure in the Bush administration is prepared publicly to criticise the effectiveness of British forces in Basra is a graphic indication of how strained relations have become between the countries which were in the vanguard of the military campaign to overthrow Saddam Hussein.

To an extent, the British have only themselves to blame for this sorry impasse.

For far too long senior commanders encouraged the view that the British Army, with its long experience of peace-keeping operations in Northern Ireland, had done a better job than the trigger-happy Americans in restoring law and order to the four Iraqi provinces they administered, following Saddam’s overthrow.

Mr Brown himself appeared to reiterate this view at Camp David when he boasted, at the joint press conference with Mr Bush, that Britain had successfully handed over three provinces to Iraqi control and intended to hand over Basra itself - the fourth - by the end of the year.

The clear impression Mr Brown gave Washington was that, once Basra was safely handed over to the Iraqis, the British mission was effectively complete, and London could give serious consideration to withdrawing its troops.

The Americans were furious, not least because the security situation in southern Iraq was hardly anything to boast about, and because the timing of Mr Brown’s comments could not have been made at a more inappropriate time, just as Mr Bush’s much-vaunted military “surge” of extra troops was beginning to pay dividends in curbing the murderous activities of Iraq’s various insurgent groups.

Apparently the new cri de cœur from the pull-out-now brigade is that, in anticipation of Petraeus’ coming triumphant report, bits of Iraq may be getting better, but Basra is getting worse! Completely ignorant of or disregarding the fact that Basra’s the responsibility of a whole ‘nuther country who’ve been behaving exactly as the Democrats and the pull-out-now brigade would have liked us to have behaved all this time. So damned right we’ll be testy.